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Eero Saarinen was a close personal friend and sometimes collaborator with my long time employers Charles and Ray Eames. The wire chair here and I'm sure others elsewhere in the building are probably Eero's personal nod to that relationship, as well as an appropriate statement of 50's modernism.

If such words may be applied to architecture. Another Eero Saarinen classic! I love the colorful lighting effects. I wonder if they were permanent or just created for this photo.

[There are no "colorful lighting effects." -Dave]

The Design Center was just one part of the GM Tech Center. And it makes sense that they would want a dramatic visual statement in the place where artists are designing the next generation of Motorama show cars, Harley Earl's Buick LeSabre and later Bill Mitchell's Corvette Sting Ray. The exterior was constantly used as the backdrop for photos of GM's dream cars. I hope GM's corporate troubles of the last few years have not diminished their architectural legacy. I still hope to visit one day to see for myself.

This lobby is, I think, the pinnacle of post-war mid-century modern design, and why I became an architect. Unfortunately, it only lasted until the end of the JFK 'Camelot' era, whereupon it went downhill faster than an Edsel sales chart - we lost the excitement, the exuberance of looking to the future in favor of the allure of the cheap, mass-produced, "get it today and throw it away tomorrow" culture we are currently mired in, as evidenced by every crummy strip mall, dull office park and 'McMansion' suburb. We gave up Marilyn Monroe and got Honey Boo Boo in exchange.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.